


Operation ‘Best Buddies’

by Narci



Series: helen au [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Loki (Marvel), Kid Tony Stark, Legos, M/M, cuteness, first grade, light bullying, outside pov, preslash, very very light violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23099185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narci/pseuds/Narci
Summary: In all the years that she’s been teaching, Helen Thoreau has never seen a sight cuter.-/-preslash frostironKid! Fic!Fluff! LEGOs!
Relationships: Loki & Tony Stark, Loki/Tony Stark
Series: helen au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1715743
Comments: 6
Kudos: 161





	Operation ‘Best Buddies’

>x<

  
Ms. Thoreau teaches first grade at a private elementary school geared primarily towards the gifted offspring of celebrity parents. Because of this, she has met many peculiar children. However, none have worried her nearly as much as one Loki Odinson. He’s obviously a clever child. He’s polite and charming. But… Ms. Thoreau has noticed the lack of friends he seems to have, and that concerns her to no end. 

There’s not much she can do to help him. She’s tried. Partner exercises end up with a spitting mad Loki refusing to participate. His partner is almost always the cause. Games wind up causing arguments between Loki and the other students, and Loki always wins. So, yes, she has tried to help him make friends, and no, it has not worked. At all. 

Helen Thoreau is very close to giving up. Despite the knowledge that what every child needs most is a friend, she can’t help but lose hope. Loki just refuses to work with her. (And the rest of the class refuses to work with him.) 

Instead of continuing with her attempts at gaining him comrades, she begins to focus on ensuring he has some sort of support system. Helen always talks to the young boy before and after class. Loki seems to appreciate this, but she can’t help but read loneliness on his face every time a classmate ignores him. 

-/-

Halfway through the year, Helen receives an email from her superior. It informs her concisely that she will be graced with a new student. Anthony Edward Stark. Son of Howard and Maria Stark. This information instantly makes her wary. Helen’s taught a variety of children over the course of her career, and she isn’t exactly a novice in her profession, but she’s heard things about Anthony. 

He’s a prodigy, which is unsurprising given his parentage, but that’s not what gives her pause. (Helen dealt with many geniuses in her past, and she currently has Loki in her class.) Anthony is known to be opinionated and loud. Despite his young age and adorable face, he has already made various teachers quit their jobs. In fact, he’s being transferred because of that. This is his last chance before being sent to a boarding school. Still, her concerns aren’t exactly selfishly rooted. The person Helen would truly hate for Anthony to upset is Loki. 

Anthony is a trend setter when it comes to children. Whenever he says something or someone is cool, the others quickly agree. That must work in the opposite way as well, she thinks. The worst possible thing for Loki’s emotional development would be Anthony coming in and deciding that he’s uncool or something else of the sort. That would instantly turn Loki’s classmates’ casual negligence into open hostility. His childhood would be forever stained by that malicious disregard, and Helen would never forgive herself. 

-/-

Ms. Thoreau is ashamed to admit that her hesitance at Anthony’s arrival influenced her attitude towards him. With a chilled demeanor, she had introduced herself to the boy. The look in his eyes made her die a little on the inside. He looked so disappointed but acceptant, like he thought he deserved to be treated icily. 

Helen lightly frowns as she observes the small children in front of her. The class isn’t large, but it’s not exactly tiny either. Loki is seated near the front, and Anthony is two seats behind him, silently staring at his lap. The young Stark is nothing like Helen anticipated. He’s quiet where she expected loud, a calm where she expected energy, and soft where she expected steel. Perhaps Anthony is more like Loki than she ever thought. Just misjudged. Misunderstood.

-/-

It takes Ms. Thoreau two months to convince Tony that she doesn’t hate him. It takes another week to become even slightly immune to the constant suspicion in his eyes. She made a mistake that will take more time to remedy than she has with the boy. Still, she’s trying.

However, as Helen attempts to reconcile with the young brunette, Loki seems to drift away. No longer does he seek her out every morning. He’ll still speak to her, but she has to begin the conversation. He’ll talk to her, but he’s more detached now. It’s confusing—hard to swallow, and Helen doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t even know why he’s starting to pull away.

Though, it could possibly be because of Anthony? Because she was devoting some of her attention to the slightly younger boy instead of just Loki? That could actually make sense. Sadly, if it is true, Helen has an issue. How is she supposed to clearly express to both of them that she cares when they’re so clever and wary? (And even jealous in Loki’s case.)

There’s only one course of action, Helen decides with a nod to herself, they have to become friends. 

-/-

Operation ‘Best Buddies’ (so Helen isn’t great at the naming thing, sue her) is going moderately well. Though the two remain acquaintances at best, they seem to harbor zero negative feelings towards each other. And! And, Helen has managed to subtly mention the idea of being Loki’s friend to Tony. She’s close. She can feel it. 

-/-

The breaking point comes in the form of a fight three days later. In the short period Tony has been a part of her class, he has managed to gain no less than ten boys’ respect and four girls’ admiration. To put it simply, he is quite popular. He seems to know exactly what people expect of him, and how to bend those expectations to his benefit. It’s the sort of thing Ms. Thoreau would have thought Loki more apt to do. Again, her assumption is proven incorrect. Loki simply doesn’t care enough about making friends to change his attitude. Some part of the young boy no doubt believes that a personality change still would not help him with the other kids. 

It’s that outlook that makes Loki such an ideal target. Loki doesn’t want to get along with anyone, so they don’t try to get along with him. Typically, the other boys just leave him alone in favor of bugging Tony into hanging out with them. Today, however, is not a typical day. Loki walks into the classroom with a scowl on his face. And Tony arrives at school shortly before lunch because of some unknown reason that he refuses to voice. (Helen thinks the red, swollen eyes say it loud enough already.)

On their own, neither of these occurrences result in much of anything. Together though… things quickly spin out of Ms. Thoreau’s control. Due to Tony’s off-putting absence, and later mood, the boys and girls that would usually play with him steer clear. That lack of entertainment leads to a renewed interest in teasing Loki, which is something the sharp-tongued boy will not go along with in his current gloom. Loki’s vicious response to their taunts causes the four bullies to resort to physical violence. And as soon as one of the six year olds throws a punch, Tony jerks up from his chair and stomps over—murder in his narrowed eyes. 

Ms. Thoreau is about to step in, but with the new development, she pauses to see what Tony will do. If he can deal with it, she won’t need to. She, however, didn’t foresee his actions in the slightest. 

Anthony is a small boy even when compared to another child his age. He has a rounded face and large brown eyes that give him an even more childish appearance. And in the approximately three months Helen has known him, she had never seen a single act of violence from him. Not even an angry shout. 

As he reaches the five children in the corner of the classroom, he seems to harden somehow, and suddenly, he’s the boy Helen was warned about: the one who made grown men and women quit their jobs. Ms. Thoreau watches in shock as he stops right in front of the group and punches the boy who tried to hit Loki. That’s not all though, the words following his action are what really gave her pause. 

“Jarvis says that if a man turns to violence before anything else, he will surely experience more violence than anyone else. I like to think that means you deserve that. It’s car-mah! So unless you wanna experience some more karma,” he raises a curled fist in warning, “leave Lokes the hell alone.”

The four disperse quickly enough, all sending Tony astonished glances. He just ignores them and pulls a chair out in front of Loki. Ms. Thoreau is thoroughly invested (no pun intended, honestly) in whatever is about to be said. As she examines the scene, she notices that Tony’s still got his little red and gold backpack on. Loki looks up from the desk that had previously held all of his attention and raises an eyebrow at him. 

“Hey, Lokes.” Helen thinks this might be the first time Tony and Loki have actually spoken to each other. “Do you wanna play with my legos?” 

Loki snorts and easily replies, “Are you sure, Anthony?”

The brunette just nods and pulls his bag off his back in order to pull out a new box of legos. He carefully places it on Loki’s desk and shyly smiles. 

“Then, okay!” the boy happily agrees. And so they begin. Playing with legos calmly directly after Tony punched someone. In all the years that she’s been teaching, Helen Thoreau has never seen a sight cuter. She knows that she should be scolding Tony for his actions and language, but she can’t seem to bring herself to do so. Instead, she just softly smiles and sits back down at her desk, watching the two boys play, and waiting for their designated ‘free time’ to end. 

Operation ‘Best Buddies’ is a wild success.

xl\fin/lx

**Author's Note:**

> just a short sweet kid fic, this was actually inspired by a soulmate au i wanna write soon. i hope y’all liked it! 
> 
> until next time!!
> 
> (≧∀≦)(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)(≧∀≦)


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